Day 4

Day 4

Today i stumbled upon a fascinating picture called "Burka Barbie" and it made me giggle at first but once reading up on it and truly looking at what this 'creation' means for the Burka wearer i was completely exhilarated.

The words "Barbie doll" used to give one the image of a ditzy large headed blonde doll with a seemingly perfectly proportioned body. No longer. Since the 50th anniversary of this iconic doll on the 20th of November this year- the beloved playtime toy has risen to a new level. 500 Barbies- including Barbies wearing chadors and full length burkas- have been on show at the Salone del Cinquecento in Florence, Italy.

The Burka Barbies named "Bring it on, Burka Barbie" were auctioned off by Sotheby's as a fundraiser for the Italian branch of Save the Children- clearly Italy has not quiet taken the harsh NO BURKA approach of its neighboring France. But still is this right? is it right to simply place Islamic women in a cocoon of "this is what they all wear"?. People were shocked by the first Barbie of colour and look wear we are now, black, white, chinese, mayan, Hawaiian and now Burka Barbies- but is this too far?

Burka's are such a strongly contested symbol of the traditional Islamic women, are these dolls not making a mockery of disempowered women who have been stripped of all human dignity, women with no means of challenging their forced depersonalization, or is the in fact the maximum expression of equality.

image:http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2292763

-A great response to my facebook blog link- yay;-)